# Society of Christian Ethics

The Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) is a non-denominational academic society that promote scholarly work in Christian ethics and the relation of Christian ethics to other ethics traditions. Its members are faculty and students at universities, colleges, and theological schools primarily in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
Founded as the American Society of Christian Social Ethics in 1959, the society changed its name to the American Society of Christian Ethics in c. 1964 before adopting its current name in 1980.
The SCE sponsors an annual meeting in conjunction with the Society of Jewish Ethics and the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. Some papers from these meetings are published in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.
Emilie M. Townes, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair in Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University, was President of the SCE 2024-25.

## Presidents

| Year of Term | President | Presidential Address |
| 2025 | Rebecca Todd Peters | TBD |
| 2024 | Emilie M. Townes | TBD |
| 2023 | D. Stephen Long | "Making a Living by Teaching and Learning Christian Ethics" |
| 2022 | Bryan N. Massingale | "Dreaming while Black: King, Imagination, and the Work of Ethics" |
| 2021 | James F. Keenan, SJ | "Social Trust and the Ethics of Our Institutions" |
| 2020 | Jennifer A. Herdt | "Of Wild Beasts and Bloodhounds: John Locke and Frederick Douglass on the Forfeiture of Humanity" |
| 2019 | Patricia Beattie Jung | "Celebrate Suffrage" |
| 2018 | Diane M. Yeager | "A Quality of Wonder: Five Thoughts on a Poetics of the Will" |
| 2017 | David Gushee | "Christian Ethics: Retrospect and Prospect" |
| 2016 | Cristina Traina | "'This Is the Year': Narratives of Structural Evil" |
| 2015 | William Schweiker | "Humanity and the Global Future" |
| 2014 | M. Cathleen Kaveny | "Law and Christian Ethics: Signposts for a Fruitful Conversation" |
| 2013 | Allen Verhey | "Should Jesus Get Tenure? Jesus as a Moral Teacher and the Vocation of Teaching Christian Ethics" (prepared in advance but not delivered in person due to illness) |
| 2012 | Miguel De La Torre | "Doing Latina/o Ethics from the Margins of Empire: Liberating the Colonized Mind" |
| 2011 | Stanley Hauerwas | "Bearing Reality: A Christian Meditation" |
| 2010 | Douglas F. Ottati | "How Can Theological Ethics Be Christian?" |
| 2009 | Daniel K. Finn | "The Promise of Interdisciplinary Engagement: Christian Ethics and Economics as a Test Case" |
| 2008 | Darryl M. Trimiew | "Political Messiahs or Political Pariahs? The Problem of Moral Leadership in the Twenty-first Century" |
| 2007 | Christine E. Gudorf | "Heroes, Suicides, and Moral Discernment" |
| 2006 | | |
| 2005 | Jean Porter | "Christian Ethics and the Concept of Morality: A Historical Inquiry" |
| 2004 | John Langan | "Hope in and for the United States of America" |
| 2003 | June O'Connor | "Ethics in Popular Culture" |
| 2002 | William F. May | "The Shift in Political Anxieties in the West: From 'The Russians Are Coming' to 'The Coming Anarchy'" |
| 2001 | Gene Outka | "Theocentric Love and the Augustinian Legacy: Honoring Differences and Likenesses between God and Ourselves" |
| 2000 | Harlan Beckley | "Moral Justifications for the Welfare State" |
| 1999 | Robin W. Lovin | "Christian Realism: A Legacy and Its Future" |
| 1998 | Ronald M. Green | "Jewish and Christian Ethics: What Can We Learn from One Another?" |
| 1997 | Lisa Sowle Cahill | "Community Versus Universals: A Misplaced Debate in Christian Ethics" |
| 1996 | Charles H. Reynolds | "Text, Argument and Society: Remembering and Anticipating Our Collegial Identity" |
| 1995 | David Hollenbach | "Social Ethics under the Sign of the Cross" |
| 1994 | Jon P. Gunnemann | "Alchemic Temptations" |
| 1993 | Margaret A. Farley | "How Shall We Love in a Postmodern World?" |
| 1992 | Joseph L. Allen | "Power and Political Community" |
| 1991 | Peter J. Paris | "The Search For a Common Moral Discourse Among African Peoples" |
| 1990 | Larry L. Rasmussen | "Power Analysis: A Neglected Agenda in Christian Ethics" |
| 1989 | Karen Lebacqz | "Love Your Enemy: Sex, Power, and Christian Ethics" |
| 1988 | Theodore R. Weber | "Truth and Political Leadership" |
| 1987 | John Howard Yoder | "To Serve Our God and to Rule the World" |
| 1986 | Max L. Stackhouse | "Christian Social Ethics as a Vocation" |
| 1985 | Major J. Jones | "Ethical Criteria, Principles, and Guidelines for One's Stance Against Evil" |
| 1984 | Alan Geyer | "Politics and the Ethics of History" |
| 1983 | Thomas Ogletree | "The Ecclesial Context of Christian Ethics" |
| 1982 | Beverly Wildung Harrison | "The Dream Of A Common Language: Towards A Normative Theory of Justice In Christian Ethics" |
| 1981 | Daniel C. Maguire [de] | "The Feminization of God and Ethics" |
| 1980 | Douglas Sturm | "The Prism of Justice: E Pluribus Unum?" |
| 1979 | Donald W. Shriver Jr. | "The Pain and Promise of Pluralism" |
| 1978 | Walter G. Muelder | "The Science of Limits and the Limits of Science" |
| 1977 | Waldo Beach | " The Old and the New in Christian Ethics" |
| 1976 | J. Philip Wogaman | "The Integrity Of Christian Ethics" |
| 1975 | Preston N. Williams | |
| 1974 | Roger L. Shinn | "The Style of Christian Polemics" |
| 1973 | Charles C. West | |
| 1972 | Edward L. Long Jr. | |
| 1971 | Charles Curran<ref>"History of the SCE". Society of Christian Ethics. Retrieved August 4, 2020. | |
| 1970 | John H. Satterwhite | |
| 1969 | James Gustafson | |
| 1968 | James Luther Adams | |
| 1967 | Murray Leiffer | |
| 1966 | Victor Obenhaus | |
| 1965 | Paul Elmen | |
| 1964 | Prentiss L. Pemberton | |
| 1963 | Walter W. Sikes | |
| 1962 | Paul Ramsey | |
| 1961 | E. Clinton Gardner | |
| 1960 | John C. Bennett | "Ethical Principles and the Context" |
| 1959 | Henry E. Kolbe | (no annual meeting) |

## Executive secretaries / Executive directors

* 1959–1963: Das Kelley Barnett
* 1964–1967: E. Clinton Gardner
* 1968–1971: Douglas Sturm
* 1972–1975: Franklin Sherman
* 1976–1979: Max L. Stackhouse
* 1980–1983: Joseph L. Allen